Trumbull County appealing judge’s ruling on sewers

Staff report

WARREN

Trumbull County has appealed a ruling by a common pleas court judge calling unconstitutional an Ohio law that allows building contractors to install sewers and charge affected property owners a part of the cost.

Jim Brutz, an assistant prosecutor in the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office, filed a notice March 5 with the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals indicating that county officials are appealing a Feb. 6 decision by Judge W. Wyatt McKay.

The notice says Judge McKay’s decision “adversely affects [the county’s] ability to install sanitary sewers” and added that the 2004 lawsuit the decision was based on “had been pending so long that certain relevant facts were not addressed in the trial court’s decision.”

Judge McKay ruled that the Ohio law involved gives building contractors too much latitude. The county sanitary engineer’s office reviews the projects when private contractors build them.

“The facts as found in these cases should stand as a testament that the landowner in Trumbull County is getting nailed with unfounded and unreasonable charges because [the law] simply does not provide the protection necessary to contest these matters,” Judge McKay’s ruling said.

Sewer projects have been built regularly in Ohio under provisions of the law for more than 40 years and were never challenged before, attorneys involved in the case say.

Frank Bodor, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of residents of the Sable Creek neighborhood in Mineral Ridge and King Graves area of Vienna Township in 2004 said the decision has implications for the entire state.

The county carries out other sewer projects after proposing them to the affected property owners and telling them the estimated cost. Those projects are carried out under a different Ohio law and are not affected by Judge McKay’s ruling.